Ravenwood (3 page)

“Mother Fairport?” The taller one looked vaguely familiar. It took her a moment to recognize him as the ox cart drover from the morning. “You visited with Amber today? At the village?”

The two stepped back from her and held their hands out to their sides, palms forward to offer as little threat as possible. The smaller one she didn’t recognize but then she’d only seen women and children during her visit. They both smiled and made no threatening movements. Tanyth kicked herself for leaving her staff where she could not reach it but crossed to the scorched rock to deposit her load of kindling before responding.

“And you are...?” She countered his question with her own.

“William Mapleton. I’m Amber’s husband. I think I met you on the road this morning, didn’t I?”

She nodded once. “You did.” She turned to the smaller man. “And you?”

“I’m Sadie’s man, mum. Thomas.” He smiled and nodded his head.

“You two seem to be a bit off the path.”

William’s lips tightened. “In more ways than one, mum. We need your help back at the village.”

“What kind of help?

Thomas piped up. “It’s Sadie, mum. She’s come down with a blindin’ headache and I think she’s a fever as well. Her skin’s hot to the touch.”

She looked back and forth between them. “Do you think I made her sick?”

The two men shook their heads and William answered. “Of course not, mum, but Amber said you have some knowledge of herbs and such. She hoped you might be able to help. She sent me and Thomas here to try to catch you up and see if you’d come back to the village.”

“Willow bark tea?” Tanyth asked.

The two men glanced at one other. “What about it?” Thomas asked.

“Did you give her some willow bark tea?”

They shook their heads in unison. “All-Mother preserve us.” Tanyth muttered. She snatched up her pack and staff. “Let’s go.”

William took the pack from her. “It’ll be faster if I carry the load, mum.”

She didn’t argue and he slung her pack over one shoulder like it weighed nothing at all.

Thomas led the way through the gathering dusk with Tanyth on his heels and William acting as rear guard. The Pike itself was just a lighter shadow in the dimness. The long road of the afternoon melted under their hurried strides and even Tanyth’s conditioning showed the strain before they turned into the path leading to the hamlet sometime well after sundown but before moon rise.

The two men led the way to a hut where Sadie lay shivering under a pile of homespun blankets. “I’m sorry, mum.”

Tanyth smiled gently. “Not to fret, dear. I’m here and I’ll do what I can.” Her nose told her a familiar story and she turned to Amber and one of the other wives from the afternoon. “Rebecca, isn’t it?”

The woman nodded, pleased to be remembered by name. “How long has she been throwin’ up?”

“Just a few times.” Rebecca said. “She started this afternoon.”

“And the runs?” Tanyth looked back and forth between them.

“Just started,” Amber said. “Looks like the flux to me.”

Tanyth nodded in agreement. “I think so, too.” She turned to the two men hovering at the door. “You two, put the kids to bed, if they’re not already. You’ve got work tomorrow and there’s nothing you can do here. Thomas? Can you take a bedroll somewhere?”

He nodded and they beat a hasty retreat, leaving the women to their tasks.

Tanyth rummaged in her pack and pulled out a fold of canvas, holding it up with a smile of satisfaction. “This is the last of my stock, but perhaps we can get more in the morning.” She handed the package to Amber. “Start some water boilin’ in a pot. We’ll make her some willow tea, and I’ll show you two how to make it as well. There’s naught we can do for the flux but try to make her comfortable until it burns through her. The tea will help and you should keep a stock handy.”

The two younger women set to work on Sadie’s hearth and Tanyth sat with Sadie, bathing her brow and offering soothing noises. She thought back to all the various times she’d helped people this way since that first night she fled Roger and took shelter at Agnes Dogwood’s tiny cottage in the forest west of Fairport. Agnes was always taking in strays and Tanyth counted herself among them. She’d stayed in the cottage all winter, curled inward and hurting. With the spring, and with Agnes’s gentle ministrations, she came to herself and began the long pilgrimage that brought her to tend the bedside of a stranger.

She shook herself back to the reality and Amber called to her from the hearth.

“How do we make this tea?”

Tanyth patted Sadie’s shoulder reassuringly and crossed the small room to supervise adding the dried ground willow bark to the boiling water. When Amber took the pot off the heat, Tanyth pushed it back near the edge of the fire to keep the water just simmering.

“You’ll want to get it a bit more than just steeped to get the full good out of it. Leave it for a few minutes at the simmer to get the most out of the bark. It needs to recover from being dried before it can give up the medicine.”

The two women listened intently and then watched the liquid bubble gently in the pot. After a quarter hour, with the bitter aroma of the concoction beginning to swirl around the room, they took it off the fire. Tanyth had them pour the tea through a cheese cloth to strain out the solids.

“How much do we give her?” Rebecca looked at the murky tea.

Tanyth gave a little shrug in answer. “Start with a cup. It’s less than tasty so I’ve never been tempted to see how much of it I could drink myself. But when cramps are bad, even a bad cup of tea is worth it for the relief it brings.”

The women shared knowing looks before decanting a mug of the tea and helping Sadie to sip it. After the first tentative slurp she took it readily enough and the exertion of half sitting and sipping the hot liquid tired her to the point that when she lay back in the bed, she fell into a quiet sleep.

“Was that the bark tea that put her to sleep?” Amber asked.

Tanyth shook her head. “I’d guess exhaustion. Fever takes a lot out of you and the flux just takes that much more.” She eyed the sleeping woman. “If she can keep it down, it’ll help with the pain, but we really don’t want to give her enough to break the fever until it’s ready to go on its own.”

Rebecca looked at her sharply. “Why is that, mum?”

“Fever is the body burning out its poison. If it gets too high, it’ll kill as fast as anything. Normally, it doesn’t and gets just hot enough to cook the poison out of the blood without cooking the person from the inside out. But you want the fever to run its course so you know the poison is gone. The tea will reduce the fever a bit, but it’s all to the good.”

Amber caught herself in a yawn and Tanyth smiled.

“Let’s take turns sitting. The night is more than half gone now, and she should sleep soundly for a few hours. If you two would like to get some sleep, I’ll wake one of you in a bit to take a turn.” She nodded at the pile of bedding going unused because the children were farmed out in other huts for the night.

Rebecca took the hint and burrowed into the bedding. Tanyth thought she didn’t look all that much older than the children that probably slept there.

Amber asked, “Are you sure, mum?”

“Please, call me Tanyth? Or Tan? Mum makes me feel old.” She smiled, hands pressing into the small of her back. “And right now I don’t need anything makin’ me feel any older than I am.”

Amber smiled in return. “But will you be alright?”

Tanyth nodded and pulled her pack out of the corner where William had dropped it. She took out her bedroll and placed it as a pad on the floor beside the bed, using the pack itself as a cushion to lean against. “Much cozier than a fire in the open, my dear. I’ll be fine. You get some sleep. Tomorrow will be full enough of mischief.”

Amber crawled into the pile of covers beside Rebecca and the two of them soon snored delicately, leaving Tanyth to her thoughts and the night. The excitement of the evening, starting with finding two strangers in her camp, the dash back over the ground so recently covered in the light of day, and finding a simple case of the flux that these young people should have been able to handle without difficulty gave her pause.

Tanyth checked on Sadie who appeared to be sleeping comfortably and settled back on her makeshift seat, one she’d often used in the wild. She crossed her arms under her breasts and settled in for a bit of a rest herself, but her mind would not let go of the one real fact. Grown women, albeit young as they were, must have seen flux a hundred times before. Amber had even recognized it. It was the most common of ailments next to running nose and cough. They had to have known that Sadie was in no real danger, even if she were uncomfortable.

Why, then, had they sent the men after her? Her mind chased the question around like a kitten chasing its own tail, but like the kitten, she never caught up with any good answers. After an hour or so of sitting in the quiet, she heard Sadie’s breathing lengthen and deepen. She reached up and placed the back of her hand against the sick woman’s forehead. The fever hadn’t broken, but the willow bark was working its magic. Tanyth gave a small prayer of thanks to the All-Mother before settling down for a short nap of her own. In the forest behind the hamlet she heard a solitary owl hoot out a single call before the night drew close around.

Chapter 3
A Temporary Delay

Small movements in the bed beside her woke Tanyth. Watery, predawn light gave her enough of a clue as to the hour to get her up and moving. She rose, stretching out sore muscles in neck and back with rolling motions. Sadie had thrown back the heavy blankets, leaving her shoulders and one arm exposed to the moist night air trapped in the hut. Tanyth pressed the back of her hand against the exposed skin of the young woman’s arm and considered. Still fevered, but it was reduced.

She sighed and crossed to the hearth. She rummaged in the coals, adding some small sticks from the woodbox and fanning the flame to get a cheery fire going. Amber and Rebecca joined her.

“You didn’t wake us!” Amber seemed at once contrite and distressed.

Tanyth smiled at the earnest face peering at her from under night-tossed hair. “Sleep will help keep you from picking up her flux and there was nothing to do but wait.” She shrugged. “I had a pleasant nap right there myself, so no harm done, my dear.”

Rebecca glanced at Sadie. “How is she doing?”

Tanyth followed the glance with one of her own and added another half-shrug. “Seems like the fever is down a bit, but unless I miss my guess, she’s got another day before it burns through.”

Amber nodded. “Thank you for comin’ back, mum.” Her voice was low, and Rebecca nodded her wide-eyed confirmation.

“I’m glad they found me.” Tanyth looked back and forth between the two faces peering at her through the dim light. “But I don’t understand somethin’.”

The two glanced at each other before looking back at Tanyth. “What’s that, mum?” Rebecca asked.

“How could you not know this was the flux? And why didn’t you just give her the willow bark?”

Amber sighed. Rebecca looked a bit guilty.

Tanyth waited them out, poking the coals and pressing the pot of willow bark tea closer to the fire.

Finally Amber spoke. “I suspected it was the flux, but after Mother Alderton passed in the winter, we were scared that Sadie would follow her path. We knew you couldn’t have gone that far so when she started throwin’ up, William and Thomas volunteered to go after you.” Amber looked stricken. “Thank you for coming back.”

“But don’t you know willow bark tea?” Tanyth softened the query with a gentle smile. “Surely you’ve seen flux and used the tea before.”

Amber started to say something but stopped. Finally she managed to find the words. “We were afraid that it wasn’t the flux. Mother Alderton was our healer and she always took care of us. None of us had time to learn before the All-Mother called her home.”

A chilly finger scraped down Tanyth’s spine. She noticed that a sharper light edged out the watery color of predawn. She heard doors opening and closing in the huts of the village over a rising tide of bird song. She sighed again. “Well, my dears, we’ve got mornin’ upon us and I suspect hungry and scared people. We should get things moving. Then we can talk.”

Amber and Rebecca nodded and shot smiles of thanks in her direction as they scampered out the door. Tanyth heard their voices reassuring their neighbors and directing the morning’s activities. Sick or no, the men needed to get on with gathering the clay, the goats needed milking, and children needed to be fed and held. Tanyth knew there was some chance that the sickness would spread, but rested, healthy bodies had the best chance fighting off the poison. She set about filling a large pot with water and warming it on the growing fire. She opened the back door to let out the stale night air and was just beginning to think about breakfast for herself, when Sadie spoke to her.

“Thank you, mum. For coming back to save me.”

Tanyth crossed to the cot and looked down at her charge. “I hardly saved you, child. You weren’t in any real danger as near, as I can tell.” She smiled down at Sadie. “You might have felt like you were crossin’ over, but most people don’t die from a simple case of the flux.”

Sadie looked drawn and pinched about the eyes, very different from the smiling face she’d shown just the previous morning. “Mother Alderton did.”

Tanyth gave a little side-to-side shake of her head. “Maybe she did. Maybe she didn’t. Mighta been something that looked like flux but wasn’t. Too hard to tell now.” She focused on Sadie and gave her a little pat on the forearm where it rested on the covers. “But you are not Mother Alderton and you aren’t going to die.”

Sadie smiled weakly at the reassurance.

“So? How do you feel this morning? Need the pan?”

Sadie shook her head. “I feel empty just now, but my head hurts and I’m so weak.”

“I’m warmin’ the willow bark again. You’ll need another cup or two before the day’s out, I’m thinkin’, but you’ll be back on your feet tomorrow, I bet.”

Sadie made a grimace. “Gah, that’s horrible tasting stuff.” She smiled. “But it does help. Thank you for makin’ it.”